The
University's updated financial system, BEN Financials, has been
in operation for nearly three weeks. Here are some items of note
from the first two weeks of activity.

From
January 2 through 16, BEN Buys users filled more than 4,000 electronic
shopping carts for processing into purchase orders, and there
were more than a thousand logins each day. Also during this period,
more than 5,000 approved purchase orders were created and 8,500
invoices processed.

While
users' feedback and reactions have been generally favorable, we
have already done some fine-tuning to make BEN Buys and the Penn
Marketplace run more efficiently. And no doubt, we'll have to
do more in the weeks ahead as we continually monitor the system's
performance and response time levels.

During
the first two weeks we experienced several outages, all of which
were resolved expediently, with no loss of data. Our apologies
for any inconvenience the downtime may have caused. In an upgrade
as extensive and complex as this one, it is, however, inevitable
that some problems will crop up, no matter how thorough the planning
and testing.

To
keep users abreast of late-breaking news and important usage tips,
particularly during these first weeks after implementation, we've
created an "Advisories" web page at www.finance.upenn.edu/ben/benfin/advisories.shtml.
It's readily accessible from the BEN Financials login page, and
we encourage users to check it frequently for updates.

As
BEN Financials settles into routine operation, your continued
support and cooperation are greatly appreciated.

--
The BEN Project Team

Almanac, Vol. 48, No. 19, January 22, 2002

ISSUE
HIGHLIGHTS:

Tuesday,
January 22, 2002
Volume 48 Number 19
www.upenn.edu/almanac/

In a message
to the University community, President Judith Rodin notes that
Penn must "take corrective steps now if we want to
maintain a balanced budget."

Dr.
Dawn Bonnell has been named Trustee Term Professor of Materials
Science and Engineering.